Carthage man charged in child pornography investigation

You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters

A Carthage man is facing 40 felony charges in connection with a child pornography case that has been under investigation by a task force for months.

Robert Joseph Vest, 28, of 1117 Peace Road, was charged Thursday with 20 counts of felony second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and 20 counts of felony third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

He was held at the Moore County Detention Center under a $500,000 secured bond.

Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter said the arrest was the result of an undercover investigation by the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. A Moore County sheriff’s detective assigned to the taskforce learned of sexually explicit images of children that were being offered from a location in the Carthage area for dissemination over peer-to-peer networks on the Internet.

The Moore County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations Computer Crimes Unit, which is also part of the taskforce, conducted a search Wednesday at Vest’s residence. Carter said numerous child pornography files were found in the home.

The case remains under investigation and more charges are possible.

Vest was scheduled to appear in Moore County District Court on Aug. 23.

Credits

Web Editor

Angie Basiouny

Copyright 2014 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

GnathostomataAug 10, 2012

Relic, you are getting close to being a hawk...watch out there. I have often thought that this particular evil should be cast on a deserted island with a spoon and one seed. Use the spoon to plant/gather rainwater, to raise the seed into food source. It should occupy their time so they do not have time to do or think about anything else. And, it would remove them from civilized society, of which they have demonstrated they are not a part. Kids should at least get grown before they realize they cannot trust adults...

RelicAug 10, 2012

There is no successful "treatment" for pedophillia. It cannot be "cured". Once a person is identified as a pedophile they should be separated from children by any means, including denying them "harmless video" (some child had to be photographed to get them). If that means lifetime incarceration or institutionalization...so be it. It's sometime ironic that we humans put fences around livestock to keep the wolves (yeah, I use that metaphor a lot...forgive me NCSU fans...)away from the sheep, cows, etc. but we allow sexual predators to walk around as long as they "behave". Or we can just wait a few years before some liberal begins to justify that folks like this are "natural" and "just born that way".

itsmyownopinionAug 10, 2012

Let's stop calling it a sickness and call it what it is -- EVIL.

GnathostomataAug 10, 2012

When I was a teacher, not so long ago, I was told that I should give a child a warning before I wrote them up for infractions of the rules. I quickly saw that would give each of my students 30 warnings if each broke a different rule...So, I took a few minutes at the beginning of each new semester to state, "This is your warning; do not break any of the rules set before you in your handbook. I will write you up and send you down the hall". Heard protest that "this isn't fair". "You can't do that". So, point is, This is the warning to all child molesters who think you have a right to ruin an innocent child's life; You don't have that right, we're tired of your sorry ways, and we will be contacting the Attorney General to have your sorry self removed from civilized society immediately. Now, everyone who is not inclined to accept these perverts please start writing everyone in public office and let them know we've had enough. We should not have to read another story about this sickness

YippiYiyoKiYayAug 10, 2012

Stupid sick perv.

Mon AccountAug 10, 2012

Guilty!!!! No jail time to waste my money!!!! Death penalty!!!!

dontstopnowAug 10, 2012

SICKO!!!! What is wrong with these people? There are so many adults out there that are willing to do this sort of thing, why pick on children? Put him under the jail!